See 12,000 elephants and enjoy homemade fudge at this Pennsylvania roadside attraction
More than 12,000 elephants of all shapes, sizes and colors live next to U.S. Route 30 — and you can see them for yourself at Mister Ed’s Elephant Museum and Candy Emporium in Orrtanna in Adams County. The roadside attraction includes more than 4,000 square feet of candy and elephants, not including what’s outside.
“We have some pretty magical gardens,” said Nicole Bucher, a Penn State alumna and co-owner and operator of Mister Ed’s.
The gardens feature seven “life size” elephants as well as Bucher’s grandmother’s teapot collection — more than 220 of them.
It all started when Bucher’s grandparents received an elephant as a wedding gift and found out it was a good luck symbol. Her grandfather started collecting elephants and eventually started the business in the mid-1970s as Mister Ed’s: The Territory’s Most Unusual General Store. They moved to their current location and name in 1984.
There’s no admission fee to walk in and visit the titular elephants, 12,000 of which are on display — and another 12,000 that are in storage, off-view. Most of them are donations from people seeking to purge their pachyderms.
“People will call us and say ‘hey, please take the elephants,’” laughed Bucher.
Miss Ellie, the big indoor elephant, actually came from Ohio — Bucher’s grandfather hauled it himself on an open-bed trailer. When the store suffered a fire in 2010, they asked the construction workers to rebuild around the size of Miss Ellie.
“You should have seen the construction worker’s face!” Bucher said.
Miss Ellie watches over the massive candy store, which also sells house-made fudge. Bucher is a licensed chocolatier herself — and doesn’t want anyone to leave Mister Ed’s hungry.
“When you walk in, we want people to say ‘wow,’” Bucher said. “It gives me goosebumps thinking about it.”
What to know: There’s free admission and you should expect to spend about an hour on site.
Hours: Open daily, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.
How to get there: From State College take state Route 26 South, US 22 East and state Route 641 East to get there in less than 2 1/2 hours.
